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Tag: Tories

Why the oddly specific number? Why?

Published by NiteMayr on April 17, 2009

Two Quotes about Chrysler and GM that stick out:

“I know this is difficult,” Mr. Clement said. “I know this affects real workers in real towns and cities across Ontario.

and

CAW president Ken Lewenza has called Fiat’s proposal to cut labour costs at Chrysler Canada by $19 an hour an “unreasonable” demand and has said it is “not going to happen,” arguing the CAW is competitive with unionized environments in the United States.

Why $19 and not a Percentage?  That’s a strange way of doing things.  It’s not like “cut them by 5%”; which would be the normal way to approach cuts.

Something stinks there.  Is there anyone inside of Fiat who can break their wall of silence and pass along the skinny on this?

Also; this again:

“I know this is difficult,” Mr. Clement said. “I know this affects real workers in real towns and cities across Ontario.

If there is something that can be said about Harper is that Canada lives between Alberta and Saskatchewan.  That’s it.  The rest of the landmass that we think of as Canada is “the Rest of it” and is dismissed very easily by the Snow-Texans of the West.

Some Interesting Reading on Tony Clement too (National Post)

Dear Candidates, Please Contact me

Published by NiteMayr on September 22, 2008

This is my election district: London-Fanshawe; Londoners might refer to the majority of it as “The Scary East End” or som variation of it.  When I first came to London, I might have agreeed, having toured it while looking for a new home.  I settled here mostly out of necessity but have been constantly surprised and pleased by the hidden nature spots and “close to the countryside” living that I have found out here on the ragged-edge of the riding.

I used “The Undecided” to figure out which party I agreed with more in this election and was surprised to find out that the Greens were top of the list (mostly due to my paranoid desire to have Health Care funded at 100% with magical healing properties and Cancer Cures for all).  That aside, I contacted the Green Party Candidate in my Riding (Dan O’Neail) and asked for some information on his stances.  I think I may do the same for the candidates for the Liberals and NDP.  I won’t Vote Tory for any reason, no matter how great the local candidate is, if isn’t the party leader, one Candidate isn’t going to change a whole party.  I’m not required to give some sort of even-handed approach to this, I’ve never claimed to be totally open-minded.And let’s face it, I’m never going to vote for anyone who claims to represent “Christian Heritage”  I mean, seriously, “I take my lead from a 2000 year old Carpenter’s Son” that’s like advertising you really, really, really want to believe that local social problems can be solved through strong belief in Faries and Giants.

So, I’m going to ask the Liberal and NDP candidates the same question I asked Dan O’Neail:

Do you have a website where you discuss your platform?

I live in your riding and would like more information about your stance on Personal Freedom, Government Transparency, Nuclear Power, Culture and Entertainment, Unions and International Trade.

Thanks for your time,

Kevin Wardrop.

I’ll post the replies as they come in.

A Short Note about my previous attempts to speak with local government:

I’ve since deleted the email reply I received about “Recycling Containers”.  It was a brusque “You can find them in any hardware store”  which kind of blunted the question by being, well, blunt.  I decided this lack of candor would be met with total dismissal.

Perhaps this time, things will go well.

The Food Crises: Logic is not Required in Food Production

Published by NiteMayr on September 18, 2008

The company also said today that it would create a new position – chief food safety officer – among other measures it’s taking to restore consumer confidence in its brands.

Maple Leaf Foods Announces that they didn’t have an official in charge of caring for food safety until now.  –September 17, 2008.

Food safety concerns are as old as fire-baked ham.  Some societies had so much trouble with food safety that they placed cultural taboos on food that was difficult to handle safely in their enviornment (I’m looking at the middle east here).   In the “modern and western” world food taboos run more towards comfort than cleanliness; Westerners don’t eat “pet” animals like Dogs or Hamsters; where some societies do.  The actual safety of the food is expected to be sacrosanct, that food producers would act in their own best interests to ensure food cleanliness and safety.  If there is any lesson to take from the BES and Listeria crises, it is that food producers don’t really take more than a passing interest in food safety that can’t be done for cheap and that the governments don’t take it any more seriously.

If there is any evidence of the latter it is the utter lack of head rolling at Maple Leaf foods due to massive fines.  People have died due to  the [in]action[s] of the company and yet I have not seen a negligent homicide or manslaughter charge appear in the news headlines.  No Maple Leaf Food execs in handcuffs.  No real outcome save the loss of money.  The Federal Governmentappears to be so far in bed with industry that they simply can’t bring themselves to prosecute their friends, for fear of looking tough on corporations.  This is the standard falacy of modern governments, corporations exists to simplify relations between governments and business, instead it seems to make Governments fear to act towards the same with the same strength as they would against another individual.

During a late-August conference call with members of the Prime Minister’s Office and Health Minister Tony Clement’s office, Ritz made quips about the potential political impact of the tragic outbreak traced to a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto.

“This is like a death by a thousand cuts. Or should I say cold cuts,” Ritz said.

And when told about a new death from listeriosis on Prince Edward Island, the Minister said: “Please tell me it’s (Liberal MP) Wayne Easter.”

Gerry Ritz demonstrating the level of candor one expects from the Tories

Once again Jack Layton & his Crystal ball say’s “Not the kind of change Canadians were looking for”.
Of course layton is refering to the cabinet shuffle, So once again Jack has stated that he knows what we are thinking. Unfortantly for jack he was not able to read my mind, & that is not what iam thinking of him this very moment.(One word begins with A ends with E, or is it 2)
Viewed on CanadaAm can be seen at CTV.ca

Posted by: bryanr at August 15, 2007 1:30 PM

Gerry Ritz is typical of the type of Government Functionary that leads to these kinds of problems, more concerned with “sticking it” to the “lazy, welfare addicted” farmers than with actual governance. This kind of thinking is part of the cause of the current economic downturn that the whole world is experiencing and appears to be an outgrowth of the Business over Governance mentality that has become pervasive in the Conservative movement since the sixties.

However, I think that the statement that I opened with sums up the problem with poor government oversight, there wasn’t already a person or persons responsible for food safety at Maple Leaf foods and one would imagine that food safety should have been job number one for a food production plant.

The one where I compare the Loonie to the Obamie

Published by NiteMayr on September 3, 2008

The US economy is tanking; there is no doubt about it.  So why is the Canadian Dollar losing value against the greenback?

At 8:05 a.m. EDT, the Canadian unit was at C$1.0767 to the U.S. dollar, or 92.88 U.S. cents, down from C$1.0686 to the U.S. dollar, or 93.58 U.S. cents, at Tuesday’s close.

Crazy!

The Loonie
The Loonie

Compare that to this:

A Zogby poll on 20 August put Barack Obama five points behind his Republican rival, reversing the seven-point lead the pollster had given him the month before.

Senator McCain 71, now leads Senator Obama by a 46 per cent to 41 per cent margin, according to a latest poll released by Zogby International on Wednesday.

The Canadian Economy is far from faltering (but tottering on the edge) with Canada being a major exporter of Oil and other natural resources.  One wonders if perhaps the Tories have not done enough to nationalize the value of said resources?  As nominal conservatives; the idea must seem anathema to their ethos of spend and cut instead of tax and spend.  Then there is the whole idea of Canada getting involved in the US’s War on Terriers.  Canada isn’t a target for international terrorism, it’s hardly even a splash damage candidate, why get involved at all until the shooting is over and Canadian peacekeepers can “keep the peace”

Yet, here we are.  Canadians and Americans seem determined to vote in another series of Conservatives, and the eagerness of the timing of Harper’s (broken promise) election is eerily like a coordinated plan to make a solid bloc of Conservative governments in the West (the UK is heading for a Tory victory too) with the Russians getting poked with a sharp stick like they are, we are looking like a return to the Thatcher and Reagan era.

Are people really this stupid?

Obama is no savior, he’s barely (at least rhetorically) a left winger; he’s about 2 degrees from McCain rhetorically; but McCain is the servant of some very sinister paymasters, whereas Obama is more of a stooge for Capatalists.

Wondrously dangerous times indeed.

Look at this dispatch from America; and doubt that the conservative political machine has gone out of control:

The Richland County (S.C.) Sheriff’s Department has acquired an armored personnel carrier complete with a turret-mounted .50-caliber belt-fed machine gun for its Special Response Team.

Sheriff Leon Lott told the Columbia State newspaper that he hoped the vehicle, named “The Peacemaker,” would let the bad guys know that his officers are serious.

“We don’t look at this as a killing machine,” Lott told the paper. “It’s going to keep the peace. We hope the fact that we have this is going to save lives. When something like this rolls up, it’s time to give up.”

The Peacemaker has a top speed of 30 mph.

You see the reasoning there; we have a giant gun and a tank and we are going to use them.  This is military hardware in the hands of the police as a response to the “out of control” levels of resistance they are experiencing.  Which is of course a fallacy; I haven’t seen a single report of anti-tank weapons used in police firefights (please correct me if I am wrong).

This is the country that is not going to elect Obama, not because he is black (which is probably why 25-35 percent of them won’t), not because he is a Democrat (25 percent of Americans still think Pres. Bush is doing a great job, they will vote for McCain if he eats a Jewish baby on stage, it’s best to just ignore them) the majority of the remaining 40-50 percent are scared.  They are scared of the future and think that the rhetoric of the people who have scared them for the past 8 years will come to pass and they will vote a nearly straight Republcian ticket and get the government they deserve.

The same is true for the Canadian dollar, the dollar is a strong alternative to the Greenback, but as Canada is tied so closely to the fate of the American Endeavor (through the strong economic and social ties that have been formed) The loony falls on the whims of the US rhetoric, which is as changeable as the wind and rooted in fear, not hope.